A York fundraising gig raised more than £1,000 for Kenyan school charity last month.
The event, which took place at Huntington’s Working Men’s Club in March, raised £1,200 for UK registered charity ‘The Future of Taru’ – which provides quality education, a feeding program, emotional support and a safe environment for children in Taru and surrounding areas, in Kenya.
The money raised will help with the ongoing construction and furnishing of a computer room at the Future of Taru High School.
The fundraising gig was a “great success”, and featured performances from two York-based bands – Melting Pot, a 90s Indie covers band, and Definitely Maybeez, an Oasis tribute act.
A raffle was also held on the night, with prizes donated by a host of local businesses, including The Grand Hotel, Middleton’s Hotel, the York Dungeon, York’s Chocolate Story, the Potion’s Cauldron, Hole in Wand, Sea Life Scarborough, The Wizard’s Magic, Sunny’s Café, and The Cyclist Café.
The Future of Taru was founded by Paul Moffat, from Carlisle, and has opened a primary and secondary school in Taru – with around 600 pupils attending across the two schools. Around 275 of the pupils are sponsored by charity supporters, which helps cover their school fees, clean drinking water, and two meals a day.
The gig was was the latest in a series of fundraising events and sponsored challenges organised by York resident and Future of Taru Trustee, Mark Mattinson.
Since January 2020, Mark has visited Taru twice to deliver donated school equipment and sports kits, including over 100 football kits donated by the York City FC Foundation, a kit that the high school children now wear for regional inter-school sporting events!
Since then, Mark and his family and friends have helped to raise over £10,000 for the charity through three Coast to Coast cycling challenges in the last three years, and an additional live music event held at the Friargate Theatre last September.
The Future of Taru are still around £4,000 away from completing their computer room construction project – if you would like to make a donation or find out more about the charity, visit their website here.